Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.
Who wrote this: Aurelia Institute trains healthcare professionals in medical aesthetics, so we have a commercial interest in this subject. We hold no Ofqual, JCCP, OTHM or VTCT accreditation at present. Every regulatory claim below is sourced and linked so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
A note on the word Botox. Botox is a registered trade name for one brand of botulinum toxin, which is a prescription-only medicine. Most people search for it by that name, so it appears here, but the clinical term is botulinum toxin and that is what this page uses.
Foundation course pages across the sector describe roughly the same day: theory in the morning, live models in the afternoon, a certificate at the end, and the promise that you can start practising immediately. Most of that is accurate.
What they leave out is the part that decides whether the training is usable. If you are not a prescriber, you cannot obtain botulinum toxin for your own patients on your own authority, and the prescriber who supplies it has to have physically examined each patient. That is not a technicality. It shapes how you work, what you can charge, and who you need beside you.
This page covers what a foundation course teaches, who can enrol, what it costs across the market, and what actually happens the day after.
The short version
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How long is a foundation course? | One day in person, usually with 3 to 8 hours of pre-course e-learning. |
| What does it cost? | £990 to £1,110 including VAT, across the providers we checked on 30 July 2026. |
| Who can enrol? | Registered healthcare professionals. Requirements vary by provider. |
| Can I practise the next day? | Legally, with the right prescribing arrangement and insurance. Competently is a different question. |
| Do I need to be a prescriber? | No, but if you are not, you need one who has examined each patient in person. |
| Is a qualification legally required? | No. No UK law requires a specific qualification for toxin or filler. |
| Do I get a recognised qualification? | No. A foundation course gives a certificate of attendance, not a regulated qualification. |
What a foundation course actually is
A day of supervised practice, wrapped in enough theory to make the practice safe. The format has settled across the market because it works: anatomy and consultation in the morning while everyone is fresh, then live patients in the afternoon.
You should expect to inject real people, not a mannequin or each other. Providers that use simulation for the whole day are selling something different, and the difference matters. Injecting a person who can flinch, ask questions and be dissatisfied is the skill you are paying to acquire.
The certificate at the end is a certificate of attendance. It is not a regulated qualification, it is not awarded by Ofqual or any awarding organisation, and it does not appear on any framework. That is not a criticism of foundation courses, which are genuinely the right starting point. It is a correction to how they are sometimes sold.
CPD points work the same way. A course advertising 8 or 12 CPD points is telling you roughly how many hours of learning it represents. CPD certification is a commercial service. It carries no regulatory weight, and no UK body requires it.
Who can enrol
Entry requirements differ between providers, which is worth checking before you pay rather than after.
| Profession | Typical position |
|---|---|
| Doctors (GMC) | Accepted everywhere. Can prescribe. |
| Dentists (GDC) | Accepted everywhere. Can prescribe within scope. |
| Nurses and midwives (NMC) | Accepted everywhere. Can prescribe only with V300 or equivalent. |
| Pharmacists (GPhC) | Accepted by most. Can prescribe if independent prescriber. |
| Paramedics, physiotherapists, physician associates, ODPs | Accepted by some providers, not all. Cannot usually prescribe. |
| Dental therapists and hygienists | Accepted by some. Scope questions apply. |
| Beauty therapists and non-medics | Refused by most providers for toxin. Filler positions vary. |
Two things follow from that table. Your registration decides which doors open, and your prescribing status decides what happens once you are through them.
The part most course pages skip
Botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine. It has to be prescribed for a named patient before it can be administered to them, and the prescriber carries responsibility for that decision.
The General Medical Council’s guidance for doctors offering cosmetic interventions is explicit: “You must carry out a physical examination of patients before prescribing injectable cosmetic medicines. You must not therefore prescribe these medicines by telephone, video link, online or at the request of others for patients you have not examined.”
Read that again if you are planning to work with a remote prescriber, because it rules the arrangement out. The prescriber has to see the patient. Not a photograph of the patient, not a form completed by the patient, not a video call. The same position applies across the other regulators, so it is not a doctors-only rule you can route around by using a nurse prescriber instead.
What that means in practice depends on who you are.
If you are a prescriber, you assess, prescribe and treat. This is the simplest arrangement and the reason prescribing status is worth a lot in this sector.
If you are not a prescriber, you need a prescriber who will physically examine each of your patients before you treat them. That is a real person, in the room or in the clinic, on the days you are treating. Finding one, paying one, and scheduling around one is the single largest practical obstacle for newly qualified non-prescribers, and almost no course page mentions it.
Dermal filler is a different matter. Fillers are regulated as devices rather than medicines, so no prescription is required. This is exactly why many non-prescribing practitioners build a filler-led practice first, and it is a legitimate route rather than a compromise.
If you are a nurse planning to prescribe, the route is the V300 independent prescribing qualification. It typically requires around three years post-registration experience, takes roughly six months, and is delivered by universities. Budget for it properly, because it changes your economics more than any injectable course will.
What you will be taught
The syllabus is fairly consistent across providers.
| Area | What is usually covered |
|---|---|
| Botulinum toxin | Upper face: frontalis, glabella, crow’s feet. Some add bunny lines. |
| Dermal filler | Lips, nasolabial folds, marionette lines, cheeks. |
| Anatomy | Facial muscles, danger zones, vascular anatomy of the treatment areas. |
| Consultation | Assessment, expectation setting, consent, photography. |
| Technique | Needle and cannula, depth, injection pressure, volume. |
| Complications | Recognition and management, including vascular occlusion. |
| Aftercare | Instructions, review, what to do when a patient calls. |
| Business | Insurance, product sourcing, pricing, sometimes premises. |
Ratios matter more than the syllabus. Four delegates to one trainer is common and workable. Anything above six and you are watching rather than doing, whatever the page says about being hands on.
Complications, and the thing to sort before you inject
Vascular occlusion is the complication that turns a cosmetic appointment into an emergency. Filler enters or compresses a vessel, blood supply to the tissue is interrupted, and without prompt treatment the tissue dies. In the worst cases involving the glabella or nose, the vessels involved connect to the retinal circulation and vision can be affected.
Hyaluronidase dissolves hyaluronic acid filler and is what you use to treat it. Three things about hyaluronidase that foundation course pages tend to gloss:
It is a prescription-only medicine, so the prescribing rules above apply to it as well. You need it on the premises before you inject, not ordered afterwards. And it can itself cause anaphylaxis, so you need adrenaline and the knowledge of when to use it.
A foundation course should teach you to recognise occlusion and start managing it. It cannot make that automatic in a day. Book separate complications training, and treat it as a required cost rather than an optional extra. Our guide to complications training sets out what a serious course contains and what you need on the premises before you inject. Our guide to what a complications drill actually involves sets out what a serious one looks like.
What it costs, all in
All figures below were read directly from each provider’s own course page on 30 July 2026. Where a provider quotes excluding VAT we have added it, so the last column compares like with like.
| Provider | Fee as published | Inc VAT | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquisition Aesthetics | £900 + VAT | £1,080 | 1 day |
| Cosmetic Courses | £925 + VAT | £1,110 | 1 day plus 3 hours pre-course learning |
| Interface Aesthetics | From £990 | £990 as quoted | 1 day plus 8 hours e-learning |
| Derma Medical | From £1,106 inc VAT | £1,106 | 1 day |
Fees cluster tightly, so the course fee is not where providers differ. What differs is ratio, whether models are live, what support exists afterwards, and whether anyone will answer the phone at seven on a Friday when a patient is worried.
The fee is also not the cost. Budget for insurance, product, hyaluronidase and adrenaline, sharps disposal, consent and record keeping, and complications training. If you intend to prescribe, add the V300. People are routinely surprised by the gap between the course price and the cost of being ready to treat.
What you can actually do the day after
Legally, with an appropriate prescribing arrangement and insurance in place, you can treat patients. Nothing prevents it.
Practically, you will be slow. A treatment your trainer completed in eight minutes will take you thirty five, and that is normal rather than a sign you were badly taught. Book longer appointments than you think you need for the first few months. Nothing damages early confidence faster than running an hour behind.
You will also want somebody to call. The first time a patient rings about swelling that does not look right, the value of a provider who answers becomes obvious. Ask what post-course support actually consists of before you book, and ask for specifics rather than the word unlimited.
Insurers will want to see what you were taught, not just that you attended. Keep your syllabus, your hours, and the number of supervised patients you treated. Our guide to what insurers actually ask for goes through the questions they put.
What to check before you book
- Is practice on live patients or on simulation? Ask directly.
- What is the trainer to delegate ratio, and is it capped?
- How many patients will you personally treat, not observe?
- Who is teaching, and what is their clinical background?
- Is complications management taught practically or as slides?
- What does post-course support actually include, in specifics?
- Are you paying in full up front, and can you stage it or use a credit card?
- What does the provider say when you ask whether a qualification is legally required?
That last question is diagnostic. Any provider telling you a Level 7 is legally required has either not read the legislation or is willing to misdescribe it to close a sale. Our guide to what UK regulation actually requires sets out the position.
On payment, never pay for a long programme in full by bank transfer. Staged payment aligned to teaching delivered, or a credit card for amounts between £100 and £30,000, gives you protection that a transfer does not. Providers have collapsed mid-course before and students lost the lot.
Where you can train
Foundation training runs across the UK, and the practical question is usually how far you are willing to travel for a better ratio. London and Manchester have the most dates. Everywhere else has fewer, which tends to mean less choice of trainer rather than lower quality.
One geographic point matters more than convenience. Scotland has legislated. The Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026 will restrict procedures in scope to premises managed by a regulated healthcare professional, and cannot commence before 6 September 2027. If you intend to practise in Scotland without a clinical registration, understand that before you enrol rather than after.
Training and local practice information by city: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, Sheffield, Nottingham.
Where a foundation course leads
Foundation is a first step and works best treated as one. The usual sequence is foundation, then a period of supervised practice building a caseload, then advanced work or a regulated qualification.
Resist widening scope early. The practitioners who run into difficulty in the first year are rarely the ones who went deep on one thing. They are the ones who added four treatments quickly and were competent at none. Get genuinely good at upper face toxin and basic filler first. That is a year, not a month.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a medical qualification to train in botulinum toxin?
Every mainstream UK provider requires registration with the GMC, GDC, NMC or GPhC for toxin training. No UK law currently requires it, but providers, insurers and product suppliers effectively enforce it. Filler entry requirements are more variable.
Can a non-prescribing nurse do botulinum toxin?
Yes, but not independently. A prescriber must physically examine each patient and prescribe for them by name. GMC guidance prohibits prescribing injectable cosmetic medicines by telephone, video link or online, and the equivalent position applies across the other regulators.
Is remote prescribing allowed for botulinum toxin?
No. The prescriber must examine the patient in person. Arrangements offering remote prescribing for aesthetic injectables do not meet regulatory standards.
Do I need a prescriber for dermal filler?
No. Dermal fillers are regulated as medical devices, not medicines, so no prescription is required. This is why many non-prescribing practitioners start with filler.
What qualification do I get from a foundation course?
A certificate of attendance. It is not a regulated qualification and does not sit on the Regulated Qualifications Framework. CPD points indicate learning hours and carry no regulatory status.
How much does foundation training cost in the UK?
Around £900 to £1,110 across the providers currently ranking for it. Budget separately for insurance, product, hyaluronidase, adrenaline and complications training.
Can I get insurance straight after a foundation course?
Usually yes, for the treatments you were taught. Insurers will ask what the course covered, whether practice was on live patients, who trained you, and whether you have separate complications training. Some will not cover filler without it.
Can I practise the day after the course?
Legally, with insurance and an appropriate prescribing arrangement, yes. You will be considerably slower than your trainer for some months, which is expected.
Does Aurelia Institute award a qualification?
No. We hold no awarding organisation approval at present and cannot award a regulated qualification. If that changes we will publish the qualification number here.
Sources
- General Medical Council, Guidance for doctors who offer cosmetic interventions, on physical examination before prescribing injectable cosmetic medicines.
- NHS, botulinum toxin injections, on face-to-face prescribing by a qualified prescriber.
- Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026, asp 13, legislation.gov.uk.
- Department of Health and Social Care, The licensing of non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England: consultation response, August 2025.
- Course fees and formats read directly from the course pages of Acquisition Aesthetics, Cosmetic Courses, Interface Aesthetics and Derma Medical on 30 July 2026.
Prices and regulatory positions change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it and say what changed.
Frequently asked questions
Every mainstream UK provider requires registration with the GMC, GDC, NMC or GPhC for toxin training. No UK law currently requires it, but providers, insurers and product suppliers effectively enforce it. Filler entry requirements are more variable.
Yes, but not independently. A prescriber must physically examine each patient and prescribe for them by name. GMC guidance prohibits prescribing injectable cosmetic medicines by telephone, video link or online, and the equivalent position applies across the other regulators.
No. The prescriber must examine the patient in person. Arrangements offering remote prescribing for aesthetic injectables do not meet regulatory standards.
No. Dermal fillers are regulated as medical devices, not medicines, so no prescription is required. This is why many non-prescribing practitioners start with filler.
A certificate of attendance. It is not a regulated qualification and does not sit on the Regulated Qualifications Framework. CPD points indicate learning hours and carry no regulatory status.
Around u00a3900 to u00a31,110 across the providers currently ranking for it. Budget separately for insurance, product, hyaluronidase, adrenaline and complications training.
Usually yes, for the treatments you were taught. Insurers will ask what the course covered, whether practice was on live patients, who trained you, and whether you have separate complications training. Some will not cover filler without it.
Legally, with insurance and an appropriate prescribing arrangement, yes. You will be considerably slower than your trainer for some months, which is expected.
No. We hold no awarding organisation approval at present and cannot award a regulated qualification. If that changes we will publish the qualification number here.